“Oh, really now?” Vito said. “Well take this, motherfucker!” Vito said, and attempted to bum-rush Alex by lowering his head and coming at him as if he was a bull with horns.
It didn’t work. Alex moved aside, and Vito fell to the floor, head first.
Vito was holding onto his painful head as Alex grabbed him by the catch of his collar, lifted him up, but instead of hitting him, pushed him away from him. He wanted to see what Vito had to give. He wanted to see just how skilled this bullshit artist really was.
Vito, now free to improvise, balled up his fists and began moving as if he was Muhammad Ali in the ring. “You want a piece of this, motherfucker,” he was saying as he moved around; as he floated like a butterfly, ready to sting like a bee. “You want a piece of this?”
Then he moved in, ready to do as Ali often did and punch him hard, and then back back out. But there was one problem with his maneuver: Alex.
As soon as Vito moved in, for his punch and out signature move, Alex stopped the right-handed punch with his left hand, and with his right hand pulled a Sugar Ray on him. Alex hit Vito so hard across his jaw that it staggered him. His dark eyes looked at Alex as if he couldn’t believe that kind of power came from one fist. He tried to swing back, but missed.
And that would be the last attempted punch Vito would attempt again.
When Vito stumbled from his missed swing, Alex didn’t wait for him to regain his balance and give it another shot. Alex was all over him. He grabbed him by the catch of his collar and began hitting the side of his face and head with blow after blow after blow after blow. Blood appeared, cuts appeared, but Alex kept hitting him in on the side of his face and head with no mercy. Blow after blow after blow after blow. Alex wouldn’t relent.
Vito, realizing just how outmatched he truly was, eventually pulled away from Alex’s grasp and ran for the door. “I want out of this motherfucker,” he was saying with terror in his eyes. “Get me out of here!”
But Alex was in that zone. It reminded him of the early days when he was a fixer for his father. He wouldn’t beat his enemies, as his order was to do. He would destroy them. And that was what he felt was called for here. Kari and Jordan were terrified of this man. He saw it in both of their faces when Vito came to their house. And Vito had kicked Kari. He had kicked her in the stomach like she was a dog. He was going to pay dearly for that move, too.
In order for a fool like Vito Visconni to get the message once and for all, Alex knew it was going to have to take utter destruction. It was going to have to be close. It was going to have to be to within an inch of his life. It was going to have to be devastating.
And it was. Alex grabbed the fleeing Vito, turned him around, and with Vito’s back against the door, punched him repeatedly again. Blow after blow after ever-loving blow. Vito was covering his face, and cowering, but Alex would not let up.
Vito’s legs buckled, and he fell down, but Alex still would not relent. His expensive, narrow tip shoe did the punching this time. The thug in him was out in force, as he kicked every inch of Vito’s body as if he was kicking a ball.
“This is for Kari,” he said as he kicked him. “This is for Kari!”
And it was true. Kari Grant belonged to Alex now. He couldn’t even say why he knew that to be true this early in their relationship. But he knew it like he knew his name. And his actions made that crystal clear, even if his mouth never said a word. Kari Grant was off the market. Kari Grant was no longer available. Vito Visconni, and his wild-eyed dreams of yesteryear, had to understand that fact.
And then he asked as he kicked. “Did you have anything to do with that girl’s murder?” he asked.
“No,” Vito cried.
Alex kicked harder.
“I said no!” he cried. “I was just trying to anger Kari. I read about it, that’s all. I don’t know nothing about that. Just leave me be. Just leave me alone!”
But Alex wasn’t about to stop just because Vito begged for it. He kicked harder when he heard Vito admit to using Jordan as a wedge against Kari. He kept kicking harder and harder.
It wasn’t until Vito began to foam at the mouth, and go in and out of consciousness as he balled up on the floor, did Alex stop his assault, and exhale.
The damage was horrific. Oftentimes, when Alex worked for his father, he would come out of that zone in a state of shock. He could not believe he did what he did to another human being. Many times, he didn’t take them to within an inch the way he had just taken Vito. Many times, he took them all the way over.
That was the main reason he got out of the business altogether. The blood of so many people were on his hands. They deserved it. They did serious shit that they should not have done. But he had to live with those hands.
Vito was an aberration. A one off. And he intended to keep it that way. He looked at Vito one more time, made certain he was still breathing, and then headed back through the connecting door to the connected room. He left out of the unused motel room, and got into the backseat of a waiting SUV. His driver and three other men, men who came with him from his father’s outfit years ago, were sitting inside. The lead guard was on the front seat.
“Is he bad off?” the lead guard asked.
“Yes,” Alex said. “He got the message. Get him out of that motel room. Dump his ass somewhere, and let it be far away from Apple Valley so the townspeople won’t attempt to use that against the vote coming up.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And confiscate any and all cameras.”
“Yes, sir,” the lead man said, and the rest of them got out of the SUV, and headed back into the motel room Alex had just vacated.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
By late afternoon, Jordan was still in the storage room making every attempt to organize what he saw as a very chaotic, nonsensical filing system, while Kari and Dez were still attempting to decide who had to go, staff-wise, and who stayed.
Then Kari’s cell phone rang. She looked at the Caller ID, hoping it would be either the legal team or Alex. It wasn’t Alex. But it was Toker Aaronson. She answered quickly. “Hello?”
“Kari?”
“Yes, Mr. Aaronson. How are you?”
“Better. Much better,” he said.
“Good news?” Kari asked, holding her phone with both hands. Dez looked at her. Kari could use some good news right about now.
“We’ll be at your house tonight,” Aaronson said. “We may have something. Something major. We’re running it through Forensics as we speak.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t want it discussed until I get the all-clear. But Alex ordered me to make sure you and Jordan were apprised of all latest developments and any good news.”
“So, it is good news then?”
“Oh, this could be excellent news. What we’ve been hoping for. But I won’t know until the experts give us the final word. We’ll see you tonight.”
“Okay. We’ll be there. We’ll be there waiting. And thanks so much.”
Aaronson ended the call. Kari could hardly believe it. They had something already? And it was something excellent? “Jordan!” she yelled. “Jordan!”
It turned out to be better than she could have ever hoped for. Aaronson and Benny, along with Alex’s chief investigator Jim Hines, sat them down at a computer on the center island, in their kitchen, and showed them what they had.
“What is it?” Kari asked.
“You are about to look at video from camera recordings we uncovered at various businesses and homes around town. We turned this town inside out looking for every piece of video we could locate, paid a king’s ransom for some of these people to turn it over, and it was well worth every dime.”
Normally, Kari was the type who would be worried that they were spending up so much of Alex’s money. But not in this case. Not if it could save her son. “You found something?” she asked.
“Oh, did we,” Benny said with a grin.
Kari and Jordan were excited now. If Benny Chur
ch had reason for optimism, they knew it could only be great news. “Show us,” Jordan said.
Aaronson nodded to Jim Hines, and Jim pressed the button. Shown on the computer monitor was video of a man and woman in the front seat of a pickup truck. The man was driving. “Stop there,” Aaronson said. It was a very clear picture of both occupants of the truck.
Aaronson looked at Jordan. “Benny has already given us a positive ID, but we need to hear it from you. Do you recognize those two people, Jordan?”
Jordan was nodding. “Yes, sir. That’s Justin Brinkley, Colt’s older brother, and the girl riding with him is Marvena Shuler.”
“Good,” Aaronson said, and then nodded to Jim.
The next video was the same, Justin and Marvena riding in the pickup, but only they were driving in a different location. Jim stopped the frame. “Do you recognize that location?” Aaronson asked.
“No, sir,” Jordan said.
“I do,” Kari said. “It’s over off of Stad Drive. Going toward the beach area.”
“Right,” Aaronson said, pleased that Kari recognized it. “That’s vital that there be no dispute about location.” Again, he nodded to Jim, and again Jim played video that ended with a freeze frame. This one was of the same pickup, carrying the same two people, at the beach.
“I’ll bet you recognize that location,” Aaronson said to Jordan.
“Yes, sir. That’s Balton Beach right there.”
“Right,” Aaronson said.
“You know what else that is, don’t you?” Benny asked.
Kari’s eyes stretched. She knew. And then Jordan realized it too. He looked at Benny. “That’s where they found Marvena’s body! That’s where they said she was raped and murdered!”
“That’s right,” Aaronson said.
“This was taped on the night of the murder?” Kari asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jim Hines said. “Every video we’re showing you is from that night in question. And we have even more than these that we’ve already turned over to the prosecution.”
“But what does this all mean?” Kari asked. “That Justin took Marvena to the beach the night she was murdered? And she was murdered on that beach?”
“That’s what it means,” Aaronson said. “But that’s not all it means. We knew we couldn’t leave it there. We needed more. We needed to bring it home. And boy, did we.”
“Short of him seen killing her,” Kari asked, “what more could you get?”
Jim played yet another video, and freeze framed it. It was the same pickup, leaving Balton Beach, and Justin, once again, was driving it. “You see that?” Aaronson asked Jordan.
“Where’s Marvena?” Jordan asked.
“And that, my son,” Aaronson said smilingly, “is exactly the question we needed you to ask. Where’s Marvena? She went to that beach with him. They went together. But he was leaving alone.”
“And he looks horrible,” Jordan said.
“Right. Like a man who might have just done something horrific.”
“And that’s not all,” Jim said. “We’ve got video of when he left his house to take Marvena home. But only he didn’t take her home. He took her out to that deserted beach in those early morning hours. They would have been alone out there.”
“But why would Colt say that Jordan did it?” Kari asked. “Why would he rope Jordan into that when he had to be the one to ask his brother to take Marvena home?”
“Because he knew his brother was the last person to see Marvena alive,” said Aaronson. “He claimed he took Marvena home that night. He claimed he saw Jordan in her neighborhood, but didn’t think anything of it, which was strange in and of itself. But that was all a lie. There’s no video out there showing Colt Brinkley going anywhere that night. But we’ve got a gotdamn movie on Justin Brinkley!”
Kari and Jordan were elated. “This is great news,” Kari said. “We need to call and let Alex know, too.”
Aaronson smiled. “You mean we need to call and let the man who’s paying all of our salaries know what’s going on?”
Everybody laughed.
“Don’t worry, honey,” Aaronson said, “we’ve already informed him. He said for you to call him after you get briefed,” he added.
Kari felt embarrassed by her blatant display of interest in Alex, but the truth was the truth. She was beyond interested in Alex.
But before she could call him at all, Benny’s cell phone rang. He started to step away to answer it, until he looked at the Caller ID. “It’s Marsha,” he said excitedly, and everybody turned to him.
“Put it on Speaker,” Aaronson said.
Benny did, and then answered the call. “Hey, Marsh. You reviewed the tapes?”
“We did a lot more than that,” Marsha said. “We hauled Justin’s ass into the police station. Him and Colt along with him.”
“And?” Benny asked.
“He confessed.”
A gasp of excitement went out into the room. Kari jumped to her feet.
“Justin is the he who confessed, that is,” Marsha continued, “when we threatened to charge his kid brother too. He admitted he took her to that beach against her will, when his brother asked him to take her home. He admitted he raped her, and then murdered her. We didn’t even have to show him those tapes. All I had to do was tell him I had them, and his mouth was off to the races.”
“Thank God for those tapes,” Benny said.
“You guys did a fabulous job. Just know that we’ve already charged Brinkley, dropped the charges against Jordan, and Mr. Drakos’s two-hundred-thousand dollars in bail money will be released back to him.”
“Thanks, Marsha,” Benny said, grinning from ear to ear. “It helps to have a prosecutor interested more in justice than in scoring points. Thanks!”
Kari was so happy, she grabbed Jordan up and hugged him with tears of joy in her eyes. “Thank you, Jesus!” she was saying as she cried. “Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!”
Jordan was happy too. But he was bitter at the same time. “I told you I didn’t have nothing to do with it!” he was saying to everybody in the room. “I told you! I told you!”
Jordan was behaving as if they all doubted him to begin with, when none of them did. But they were experienced enough to know what was truly going on. He was a kid exonerated from a hell, and was still too shell-shocked to know how to show it.
When Kari stopped embracing her son, and was wiping away her tears, Jim Hines smiled. “Now we can put our resources back into getting yes votes on that referendum,” he said.
“Alex just pulled you off of the vote count, hun?” Aaronson asked.
“Pulled all of us off. Kari Grant’s son, he said, took precedent over everything else. He wanted this wrapped up quickly.”
“We did that,” Aaronson said. Then he touched Kari’s shoulder. “Now would be a good time,” he said, “to give your man a call.”
Kari was mortified that he referred to Alex that way, as her man, and everybody looked at her. Including Benny, who seemed worried. He especially seemed to want her to deny it. To say it ain’t so. To dismiss it as nonsense.
But Kari didn’t do any of those things. She pulled out her cell phone, and called Alex. But unlike Benny’s call, she wasn’t about to put Alex on any more blast than he already was on. She kept the conversation private.
Alex answered after the fourth ring. “Hello?”
“Alex, hi. It’s Kari.”
“You need no introduction, Kari,” he said and she smiled. Jordan and Benny noticed her smile. “You’ve met with the lawyers?”
“Yes, sir.”
“They showed you those videos?”
“Yes, sir,” Kari said. “But I have more news than that.”
“Good news?”
“Great news! Justin Brinkley confessed and has been arrested.”
“Already?”
“Already! And they dropped all charges against Jordan. Oh, and, you can get your money back, too.”
But Alex was al
ready thrilled. “That’s great news, Kari. Just magnificent news! Put Toker on the phone.”
That was kind of abrupt to Kari, which probably meant he was in a meeting and had to get back to it. Kari handed her phone to Toker Aaronson.
While Aaronson and Alex spoke, Kari began hugging and playing around with Jordan. Jordan was ecstatic, too.
Then Aaronson handed the phone back to Kari. “Yes, I’m back,” she said.
“I can’t get away from New York. I’m in the middle of some tough negotiations. But I want you and Jordan to come to me. To celebrate.”
“That sounds great,” Kari said, and it did sound fantastic. “When do you want us to come?”
“Tonight,” Alex said. “I’ll send the plane. You’ll come. We’re eat. Enjoy each other’s company.” Kari knew what he meant by that. “I’ll have you guys back in Apple Valley by tomorrow noon,” he added.
It still sounded surreal to her. That she could just fly out to New York that easily. But she did it once. It was nothing for her to do it again. “Okay,” she said. “Sounds good.”
“I really need to get back to the table, but I’ll see you two in a few hours.”
“Okay.”
“Take care, Kari. And I’m thrilled that it all worked out.”
“Like you said it would,” Kari reminded him.
“Yep. Oh, and that ex of yours? Vito Visconni?”
“Yes?”
“You don’t have to worry about him for a while.”
Kari didn’t know what he did to Vito, but she hope it was permanent. “I sure hope so,” she said. “Seeing him this morning spooked the hell out of me.”
“I could tell. But he’s been dealt with.”
“Good,” Kari said. “Good.”
And they ended the call.
“What did he say, Ma?” Jordan asked.
“He said he wants us to come to New York. To celebrate your freedom.”
“Really? When?” Jordan asked.
Kari still couldn’t believe it. “Now,” she said. “Or at least when his private plane arrives to take us.”
Jordan was shocked. “I’m going to fly on a private plane?” he asked. “Wow!”
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